American Government I – Week #4 Assignment

Supreme Court Ruling Analysis

The Supreme Court is made up of nine justices who are responsible for deciding whether or not laws are in line with the U.S. Constitution. These individuals serve life-long appointments once they are nominated by the President and confirmed by the United States Senate. Below is a list of some of the most controversial decisions in the last few decades by the Supreme Court. These cases are often mentioned by politicians during campaigns because the issues are still debated, even after the Supreme Court’s ruling.

Write an essay analyzing one of the following key Supreme Court rulings:

National Federation of Independent Businesses v. Sebelius

District of Columbia v. Heller

Roe v. Wade (abortion rights)

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission

Obergefell v. Hodges

Your essay must be at least 500 words long.

Answer these questions to complete your analysis of your selected Supreme Court ruling.

Tell the reader which of the five key Supreme Court ruling you selected to analyze.

What was the law being challenged in the case?

Tell me any of the states or government entities that were part of the case.

Who was the Petitioner in the Case?

What was the Petitioner’s argument?

Who was Respondent?

What was the Respondent’s argument?

What part or parts of the Constitution were discussed in the case?

Why were those parts of the Constitution discussed in the case?

What was the final Supreme Court ruling

oWhat was the final score of the case was (for example 5 to 4 or 7 to 2 or some other combo that, in most cases, adds up to 9)

oWhat was the date that the case was decided?

oWhich side won, was it the petitioner or the respondent?

oWhat did it mean that this particular side won?

This is the most important part of the assignment: how does this case currently impact your life and the lives of Americans? Explore the political and electoral consequences of the ruling. Don’t just say, for example in the case of Roe v. Wade, women can now have abortions because only a small percent of the population is of childbearing potential – how did the case impact everyone else more generally? Think about how even this current or most recent presidential election was impacted by the ruling you have analyzed.

Provide a reference list.

Please note: APA formatting and citations rules apply to this and all essays in this course.

As with all weekly written assignments, submit your work as an attached file. Double-space your paper and use 12 point Times New Roman as your font.